


Messages

by metblink



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: 20s culture, Eren is a rich man, Forbidden Love, Jean is a newsie, M/M, One Shot, Roaring 20s, Secrets, The Great Gatsby - Freeform, pretty short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-13
Updated: 2015-10-13
Packaged: 2018-04-26 06:44:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4994233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/metblink/pseuds/metblink
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jean could leave his corner job as a newsie for something better, but a secret and a certain man keeps him there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Messages

**Author's Note:**

  * For [daydoodles](https://archiveofourown.org/users/daydoodles/gifts).



> This is a short fic I wrote in response to a Tumblr ask I got!  
> Hope you all enjoy! ;)

The air was very cold that morning on the street corner where Jean worked. Movements of busy high class people always filled the air on Monday mornings; men adjusted their bowlers, derbies and fedoras from being blown off in the wind and the ladies held their cloche’s tightly to their heads as they walked briskly to the textile mill where they worked. The men knew that most of these women were single, so many glances were always exchanged in front of Jean, and he seemed to be the only person who noticed the meaning behind them.

It had been a typical day. He had woken up, slicked back his hair with Brilliantine, dressed himself in his regular pale blue vest and trousers, and escaped his measly torn down apartment to the News Station. Jean had always thought how funny it was that people gave him so many smiles as they watched him walk through the station’s doors. They thought that he was a journalist, giving the real information to the people, and providing to the public. He had guessed that in a way, that was his job. But just, not as prestigious as he had hoped. He was at the bottom of the food chain.

He was a newsie.

He was a bit old compared to his comrades in the art, being 19 years. Usually the higher ups recruited little spats because they were gullible enough to take their measly money, and had nowhere else to go. Jean could leave his corner job, but then again, where else would he go? He didn’t really have any desire to find something better, and, Jean had a secret that kept him there.

Jean looked at his aluminum stretch watch and tucked the remaining papers under his arm. He had to come up with a message before the man arrived. He would be here any minute, because he usually arrived when the rush of people dissipated.

He thought back into his memory, of a novel he had read and had particularly liked because of its telling of a lost man, intrigued by another who is much more mysterious and notorious than he. He pulled out the last paper in the stack and went to the funnies section. He always wrote it there, right on the edge of the paper’s fold. This was so the man could find it easily.

_Perfect._

He tucked the paper back into its stack and waited. Jean thought that he was running a bit late today…what if he didn’t understand his last message?

Just as doubt started to fill Jean’s brain, the man walked through the cold bricked alley way behind him, umbrella in one hand, and white gloves in the other. Jean knew it was him because not many men wore blue and white two-toned shoes, or wore an ironed pressed suit on a possibly rainy day. No one was as confident as him. No one had green eyes like him.

“Hey bo, what’s the headliner for this morning?”

He popped out a cigarette from his front pocket, lit it, and took a long hull.

“W-Well sir, we have something you’d really like to gander about.”

Jean pulled out the messaged paper and handed it to the tall brown haired man. His eyes looked the man over as he examined it. He read the front story out loud.

“Prohibition sweeps the nation,” the man muttered through the roundness of his cigarette. He shook his head and then tucked it away and into his arm.

“When will us men ever get some hooch in the godforsaken country?”

“Sir, there are ways to get it. You just have to be a bit of a sharper. They won’t notice you.”

Jean ran his hand through his hair, and froze when he caught the man eyeing at him.

“You know boy, it might rain soon.” He put his gloves on one at a time and tugged on his coat.

“You might wanna get inside.”

“Yes, sir. You’re right. I did well today in sales. Maybe I deserve a break.”

The man stepped close, too close, and leaned forward.

“A well needed break, I might say,” he slowly hummed into the air.

His smoke wrapped around both of their heads, and left them in a fog.

“Make sure to come back sir, our paper is always the best” Jean reached out his hand, and the man accepted it.

“Oh, you don’t have to tell me, pal.”

He winked under the shadow of his fedora and was gone quicker than Jean had time to process what had happened.

As Jean walked through that same alleyway later that night, he knew that if the man hadn’t already gotten Jean’s message before, he sure would now.

_“And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer, and that I loved you.”_

**Author's Note:**

> The conversation they have together is kind of a representation of how they have to keep things a secret, but that they can still find ways to make their love work. It could also be interpreted as an innuendo ;)  
> I did some research too on slang of the 1920's and added some of that in there.   
> The words: Bo, Sharper, hooch, cloche, Brilliantine, and derbie are all commonly used words of that time.  
> I also added that Great Gatsby quote in there. I thought it'd be cute to think of Jean sending secret messages to Eren in a sophisticated way.
> 
> Anyways, thanks for reading <3


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